Kim Bradley

Kim Bradley's interest in the culinary arts launched when she was a teenager.

"My mom loved homemade cookies, so I would find new recipes, try them out then have my mom critique them," the Glen Ellyn resident explained.

It's no surprise then that she still loves to bake and has a personal mission to find the perfect chocolate chip cookie. "I'm not quite there, yet, but I'm pretty darn close," the 53-year-old said.

In addition to chocolate chips, she always has eggs and cucumbers on her shopping list. She thinks about menus over the weekend, what's already in the fridge and pantry, and builds from there.

"My family asks me every day 'what's for dinner tonight' because they like to anticipate what they're going to have." But they're not facing the same-old, same-old because she attempts one or two completely new recipes every week.

"I've been known to take a cookbook, flip the pages, stop on a page, and make that recipe."

Even though her family raves about her Chicken Piccata, pounding the chicken and the ensuing mess it makes in the kitchen relegates it to the menu only three or four times a year "when they beg for it."

Bradley's favorite food memories from her childhood are all about Sunday dinners.

"There was always something in the oven cooking away, and my sisters and I would lay on the floor and read the Sunday comics. Roast beef cooked in the oven brings me right back to my childhood home."

She also adores Thanksgiving Day stuffing, and a cheese ball served with her mother's homemade toasted onion crackers that were a big hit at her parents' parties.

Bradley has an affinity for olive oil for cooking and flavoring, but hopes she won't have to face mushrooms or seafood in the upcoming challenges. Even if she does, Bradley is a contender: she made it to the final four in 2015's Cook of the Week competition. She wanted to try to get there again so she can get that spoon.

"It's funny how the spoon means more to me than anything else!"